How to clean a leather sofa like a pro

With its rich color and supple feel, leather furniture invites an element of luxury into your room decor. Fortunately, despite its opulence, leather doesn’t require the kind of painstaking maintenance you might associate with other refinements.

Moreover, harsh cleaners can easily ruin your expensive sofa. Even bleach and ammonia-based cleaners should be avoided. Although leather is a durable material, it is porous in nature.

The 7 steps:

1. Vacuum clean the sofa with a soft brush attachment. Make sure it sucks the dirt out of all the crevices otherwise the dust and grime could be rubbed into the sofa when you wipe it with the cleaning solution.

2. Dust particles are abrasive in nature. Hence, they can damage the material when they come in contact with moisture.
Create a cleaning solution by mixing equal parts of water and white vinegar. Alternatively, you can mix a few drops of commercial leather cleaner in water.

3. Dip a soft cloth (preferably a microfiber cloth) in this solution and wring it out so that the cloth is damp, not completely wet.

4. Wipe the entire sofa with this cloth while rinsing the cloth in the cleaning solution when necessary. It is best to start cleaning from the top and work your way down.

5. Dry the sofa with a clean towel. Do not use a blow dryer for this purpose as it is likely to dehydrate the leather.

6. For conditioning, mix one part of white vinegar and two parts of linseed oil or flax seed oil. Using a soft, clean cloth, apply this mixture on the sofa in broad, circular motions. Leave on overnight.